Rusty Beck is an intriguing device bridging two TV dramas. A troubled street kid who witnesses a crime, he’s introduced in the series finale of TNT’s “The Closer,” airing at 8 p.m. Monday, and then continues on into the premiere episode of that show’s spinoff, “Major Crimes,” which launches at the potentially-DVR-baffling time of 9:06 p.m.

TNTGraham Patrick Martin.

Played by Metairie-born, Thibodaux-raised diehard New Orleans Saints fan Graham Patrick Martin, Beck shares major dramatic screen time with Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson (played by Kyra Sedgwick) in the first hour, then more of the same with LAPD Capt. Sharon Raydor (Mary McDonnell) in the second.

Many of “The Closer’s” cast members will continue in “Major Crimes,” but Martin as Beck is an addition that knits the top-rated continuing franchise’s two eras.

“There was an idea in my head that maybe the character would continue,” said James Duff, executive producer and creator of “The Closer” and its spinoff. “I was still working to keep our series regulars from ‘The Closer,’ and wasn’t sure how the character would continue. It wasn’t until I was writing it that I realized he could.”

Casting Martin as Rusty cemented it, Duff said.

“We auditioned a lot of people to play it and no one was quite right,” Duff said. “I asked the casting director to go and look elsewhere. ‘Go find some other people,’ I said. And then Graham showed up after we'd given up, kind of, and he was just miraculous. He was such a breath of fresh air. He was so good.

“And we had an opportunity to work with him for awhile doing the finale, and he held his own with Kyra. I think that's pretty amazing. As he was doing his thing, (co-executive producer and director) Mike Robin and I became more and more convinced that we needed him in the (new) series, and that that character needed to be in the series.

“It is a character that is unrepresented on television. Most children, most teenagers, are portrayed as people capable of sorting out your computer problems for you, or maybe having challenges in school, but this kid has a challenge of life itself, and has been through some very dark, dark, terrible things. Graham brought all that. You just have to like him.”

It almost didn’t happen. Martin wasn’t feeling well on the day his agent called with the audition opportunity, Duff said. But he read for the part anyway and nailed it. “I said to Mike Robin, ‘Well, that’s the guy right there,’” Duff said.

Then Martin, who’s had a continuing guest role on recent seasons of “Two and a Half Men” and costarred in the TBS comedy “The Bill Engvall Show” before that, arrived for “The Closer” episode’s final script read-through without realizing it was the series finale.

“I’m used to going to my sitcom table-reads, where everyone’s all happy and smiling,” said Martin, who will turn 21 in November, in an interview earlier this year. “This one, everyone was sad and crying. So I said to one of my fellow actors, ‘Is this how it usually is on one-hour dramas?’ And he goes, ‘No, no, no. It’s the very last episode.’ I’m like, ‘What? Nobody told me that!’”

“Remember, he's very young,” Duff said. “I don't think he was keeping up with ‘The Closer.’

“It was a very emotional table-read because people were saying goodbye.”

A Metairie Park Country Day School alum who first acted professionally at Southern Repertory Theater, Martin trained and worked as an actor in New York during his teen years, and landed “Engvall” with his first Los Angeles audition.

“I think he's got a lot of range,” Duff said. “He's got to have a ton of range. He's doing a drama on cable and he's doing a broadcast comedy, one of the top comedies of all time, at the same time. He's segueing between both these different genres, and both these different forms, and he's doing it seamlessly. He's pretty amazing. Very few people could do that, especially very few people his age.

“We have a little saying I’ll share with you that we (coined) during the finale. When we were doing scenes with him, he would just knock it over on take one, and we would call it a grand slam, because that just doesn't happen very often in our business, especially with young people. It’s rare.”

Without spoiling any story lines, Martin could get the opportunity to be hitting grand slams for a long time on “Major Crimes,” provided the show succeeds into multiple seasons.

“He is the bomb,” Duff said. “And everybody in the show loves him. He fit in immediately with the cast and they all adore him.”

Below, watch a preview of "Major Crimes."

Dave Walker can be reached at dwalker@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3429. Read more TV coverage at NOLA.com/tv. Follow him at twitter.com/davewalkertp.